It is always an interesting exercise to think back and reflect.
“Where am I? Where was I? And how on earth did I get here?”, and if you are brave also ask, “What did God do between those two points, and how much of that was I comfortable with?”
When I got to Church of the Cross in Thamesmead in 2014 the church was at a low ebb, but not only that, I had landed in a place where what I encountered was not what I had been trained for in theological college. I did not feel equipped for what I was being asked to do.
Ten years later speaking at the Church of England’s General Synod I said there is a stark reality that the churches with the fewest resources are called to minister to the communities with the highest and most complex needs. In contrast to churches in wealthier places, those in areas of deprivation minister to many for whom meeting the most basic daily needs is the primary focus of life, whereas finding safe, secure personal fulfilment is little more than a distant dream.
I was trained to run a resourced church, but I was not in one. I realised I was on a journey with the wrong map and wrong equipment, which led me to these conclusions:
- I could not do this job.
- My training was of limited use, so I needed a whole new approach.
- I needed to be brave, leave behind the methods I had been taught, and think again, probably from scratch.
Initially I thought that a key to success would be to persuade some friends in larger evangelical churches to share some of their resources, and use these to kick start things. However, I was met with a wall of silence, and in the end turned to God asking “Where is what I need, Lord?” The central thing I have learned is that while resources can be helpful – undeniably so – in the end all ministry comes back to the initial theology of the Body of Christ and self-understanding of the church leader, rooted in Ephesians 4. A church leader’s role is to equip the saints for ministry, for building up the Body of Christ – a local equipping that does not rely on an imported vision or resources. This demands whole church discipleship; everyone needs to be up to speed, engaged, flowing and growing in their gifts – young, old, singles, families, able or disabled. And these gifts can be big or small – do not despise the small things – so the church’s overall ministry is achieved by perhaps many contributions of varying size and kind which in the end create the whole. Every gift offered is honoured from an elderly man with learning disabilities lighting the candles, through the children who read the Gospel, to teenagers we have learned have a skill at preaching. And this leaves aside the never needed request to tidy up after church and do the tea and coffee. Every gift is vital.
“The church’s overall ministry is achieved by many contributions of varying size and kind which in the end create the whole.”
In my book, Sowing Seeds With Songs Of Joy, I exhort leaders to sow seeds and keep sowing seeds. This begins with spotting potential (whatever that looks like, as we have just seen), helping the person to see it for themselves, and then not only encouraging them develop it, but intentionally allowing space on a Sunday for that to be realised. You then do it with the next person, and the next, and the next …
Thamesmead is a place where we sing songs of joy, even though at times the blisters on the hands from the tools and sun beating on our neck is less than comfortable and not conducive to singing or much joy. But the growth has come, and with it fruit of all kinds – fruit to feed, plants to give you shade, vegetables you don’t quite know what to do with yet, but you know can be great with the right recipe. And we still sing with joy.
Church of the Cross is a group of people whom I know and who I can call upon as they walk in the door. I know their gifts and strengths, and I know what needs to be done, and they know that if I ask it is because I need help. It is a goodwill environment with no rotas. We have learnt that roles and routines come before rotas, we developed people’s roles, learnt their routines, and left rotas behind.
“We developed people’s roles, learnt their routines, and left rotas behind.”
Over the last decade we have stumbled on an adaptive culture, where we were happy with risk taking, and the attitude of doing few things well as opposed to many things poorly. Removing “fear of failure” allowed us to try, drop, and keep various things until we found what worked. The most obvious example of this was how we developed our sung worship. We began with bad CDs on a rubbish stereo, failed to get support from larger churches, so moved to looking locally. We had a couple who tried to lead it, but that really didn’t work. Then we had a German girl, Nadine, with us for a few months who played keyboard. This encouraged a teen in our church to say she could sing – and she could sing! Nadine left, so we got a screen which we played YouTube videos, so Karaoke worship. Then a woman turned up, worshipped passionately, and when we got to know her learnt she had been in a choir in another church but had to leave there. We asked, “Could you do a choir here?” “Yes!”, she said, and the very next week we had a choir singing to YouTube – a choir of mums and kids. This has now developed into something special for us as a church. And the teen who could sing? She is now a young woman running our youth choir. Local worship with a local flavour purely from local gifts.
“Local worship with a local flavour purely from local gifts.”
Finally, alongside a new vision of the self and of the Body of Christ, was the necessity of proper Gospel theology. I knew that a God who does not transform lives is of no use or interest to anyone with a challenging life. We must preach a gospel of transformation, not vague notions of love and affirmation. As things fall apart, people ask new questions, look for new answers in new places, and affirming the mess is no answer. Be bold, preach the full fat Gospel, and then see what God does with the seeds He gives.
Book mentioned: Sowing Seeds With Songs Of Joy by Jonathan Macy
Photo by Erin Sorsbie – used with permission. Instagram: Beacon Church Blackpool